Competency 4: Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice
Research-informed practice and practice-informed research are critical to advancing the knowledge base of our profession and maintaining our competency and ethicality as practitioners. In other words, the way to grow and expand what we know about strategies and approaches that work is to use our experience in the field to inform our research questions and use data from our research to inform our approaches in the field. For example, in my work at CASA, we utilize the research that has found that having an adult invested in a child’s life that the child can trust greatly increases positive outcomes across various variables. This informs our practice model of assigning volunteer advocates to build relationships and advocate on behalf of children and giving them a factor of stability in a system with a lot of instability. Our work also raises questions about the effects of drug exposure and educational neglect on children and what the thresholds should be for child removal from a home, and what are the most effective practices to work with families to improve outcomes. We aim to have our research and practice grow and feed off each other. This competency challenges me to not settle for established practice methods but to continually use research to inform my practice. I will do this by staying up to date in my areas of expertise, reading social work publications, and conversing with my peers.
Social workers:
a. apply research findings to inform and improve practice, policy, and programs; and
b. identify ethical, culturally informed, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive strategies that address inherent biases for use in quantitative and qualitative research methods to advance the purposes of social work.
Competency #4 In Practice
Research-informed practice and practice-informed research are critical to advancing the knowledge base of our profession and maintaining our competency and ethicality as practitioners. In other words, the way to grow and expand what we know about strategies and approaches that work is to use our experience in the field to inform our research questions and use data from our research to inform our approaches in the field. For example, in my work at CASA, we utilize the research that has found that having an adult invested in a child’s life that the child can trust greatly increases positive outcomes across various variables. This informs our practice model of assigning volunteer advocates to build relationships and advocate on behalf of children and giving them a factor of stability in a system with a lot of instability. Our work also raises questions about the effects of drug exposure and educational neglect on children and what the thresholds should be for child removal from a home, and what are the most effective practices to work with families to improve outcomes. In conclusion, we aim to have our research and practice grow and feed off each other, and there are several pieces of evidence that show how I’ve demonstrated this competency in my field and class work so far.
Evidence from class work:
In this Research Proposal from Research Methods II Class, my classmates and I demonstrate an ability to integrate research from others and a knowledge of the requirements and procedures to conduct research. Our study explores how a religious background influences gender roles in college students. For this study, we conducted an in-depth literature review on the topic and describe recruitment materials, consent forms, interview guides, and methods for a mixed-methods study on the subject. I demonstrated mastery of engaging in practice-informed research by proposing and conducting research with my classmates. I learned how to conduct a literature review for a research project, methods, and analysis procedures, institutional research board approval processes, and quantitative and qualitative data collection procedures and analysis. I also demonstrated mastery in finding the applications of our research results and presenting those at Campus Research Day.
Evidence from field:
In my practicum at CASA, I compiled some of their fundamental research supporting their practices and intervention models. Writing this summary helped me put into practice the value of research-informed practice. Learning about how CASA came into existence to fill the void of the child having an advocate in the courtroom and how we, as a non-profit, have grown from there. Learning how non-profits can grow and spread to fill niches and gaps in our systems of services and see how the original idea of child-centered advocacy was not only helpful in and of itself, but by evaluating our work, we have proven that our organization is effective in gaining results. This small review of the literature about CASA’s results helped me develop the skills to conduct reviews of the literature for class and directly about my practice and CASA specifically. By gathering research specific to my internship, I demonstrated research-informed practice through this evidence.
Other evidence:
In my Literature Review from Human Behavior and Social Environment, I demonstrated skills in collecting and summarizing empirical research. This assignment helped me develop mastery in selecting credible research by identifying peer-reviewed, recent studies and by choosing relevant studies based on the demographics of the samples they selected. By identifying things clinicians can do to improve their practice as a result of what I gathered from this study, I demonstrated an ability to integrate research findings into practice and for myself to integrate into my future clinical practice. I have not been able to integrate this specific research into my practice yet as I am not qualified to provide therapy yet, but by conducting this literature review, I demonstrate mastery of collecting research to inform my future practice.